The federal government agreed on Monday to pitch in $1 million to build a stretch of collapsible concrete at the end of a Teterboro Airport runway to stop wayward jets.
It will be the airport's third and final arrester bed, designed to stop planes that overshoot the runway. The aerated concrete crumbles when a jet's wheels sink into it, quickly slowing the aircraft.
The arrester bed is under construction at the south end of Runway 6-24 and is expected to be completed by the end of the year, a Port Authority spokesman said. In 2005, a jet taking off from the same runway overran the north end, crossed Route 46 and slammed into a building. An arrester bed was installed on that end of the runway in October 2006, and another was built on the south end of Runway 1-19.
A law authored after the 2005 crash by U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg required all major airports to have a 1,000-foot buffer zone at the end of runways by 2015. Arrester beds are required at airports, like Teterboro, without enough space to comply.
The Federal Aviation Administration awarded the money to the Port Authority. An agency spokesman could not immediately provide the total cost of the arrester bed on Monday
Source: http://www.northjersey.com
